Heavyweights doom UNC wrestling against NC State

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C.D. Mock might have thought North Carolina had a better team than N.C. State, but the scoreboard said otherwise.

And after another narrow defeat, the UNC wrestling team is still searching for its first ACC victory. Despite holding an 18-7 lead, UNC (8-4, 0-2 ACC) could not hold on as the N.C. State Wolfpack (13-4, 1-1 ACC) rallied to take down the Tar Heels 22-18 at the Eddie Smith Field House.

UNC responded to the loss by defeating Drexel (6-9, 2-1 EIWA) 22-13, but the Tar Heels lamented on the close loss against N.C. State rather than celebrate their other win.

“We knew who we needed to beat going into the dual, and it was critical that we won all of the matches from 133 pounds to 174, so it’s a shame that it was Joey Ward who didn’t have a good day,” Mock said. “I don’t take anything away from State, but we didn’t wrestle as well as last week. I’m not sure why.”

Ward, who is ranked 10th in the country, lost in the 141-pound weight class division.

With UNC trailing 7-6, redshirt junior Christian Barber pushed the Tar Heels ahead — his takedown of N.C. State freshman Sam Melikian in the 149-pound weight class gave North Carolina a 9-7 lead.

“I didn’t wrestle my greatest during the first two periods,” Barber said. “I knew I had to get the win for the team and I just had to trust my instinct.”

The Tar Heels held an 18-7 advantage over the Wolfpack after three consecutive decision victories by Chris Mears, Ethan Ramos and John Michael Staudenmayer.

The turning point in the dual came when N.C. State’s heavyweights took the mats. Nicky Hall pinned UNC’s Scott Marmoll in the 184-pound bout to pick up a crucial six points and get the Wolfpack back in striking distance. N.C. State picked up three more points in the 197-pound bout to decrease the deficit to 18-16 heading into the final match.

In the final match, N.C. State redshirt junior Nick Gwiazdowski lived up to his undefeated No. 1 ranking as he easily pinned UNC senior Frank Abbondanza to finish off the comeback and give State the 22-18 victory.

“Frank can go up against anyone, but the kid that he was going against was a beast,” Mock said.

Even in defeat, UNC had plenty of individual accomplishments — making the loss sting even worse.

“It’s a tough loss because guys like Ethan (Ramos) and Troy (Heilmann) did their job against State,” Barber said. “To win you’ve got to have six or seven guys perform and we had a couple of downfalls today.”

For Mock, the loss came down to toughness more than overall talent.

“In the locker room after the State dual I told the guys that we’re a better team than State, but we weren’t as tough as they were,” Mock said. “We didn’t exemplify the toughness that is needed to be nationally competitive, so we’ll spend a lot of time talking about how we can be tougher.”